


baby, let's get out of this town

by potidaea



Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26456503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potidaea/pseuds/potidaea
Summary: April needs to get out of Atlanta. More specifically, she needs to get out of Atlanta with Sterling Wesley.
Relationships: April Stevens/Sterling Wesley
Comments: 15
Kudos: 154





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is from "You Can Sleep While I Drive" by Melissa Etheridge
> 
> Find me on twitter @ [ki1yun](https://twitter.com/ki1yun)

Two months passed before John Stevens was arrested again, this time for solicitation and cocaine possession. Apparently, he’d fallen right into the honeytrap of an Atlanta PD prostitution sting and offered cocaine (it’s only polite) to an undercover officer in the process. His pals at the country club were less forgiving this time around; even his old UGA fraternity brothers were unwilling to offer legal support. And, well, Mrs. Stevens certainly wasn’t about to bail him out.

In the end, he sat in Fulton County Jail for thirty days before he was processed through the county court system at which point he was granted time served, plus a year of probation via ankle monitoring bracelet. Turns out, the judge was a friend of a friend he had once shared drinks with. It pays to be a rich white man in Atlanta.

But for those thirty days? April was free and she made damn sure to take advantage of it. 

\---

It was a Thursday evening and as usual, her mother had prepared dinner. Thursdays usually meant something easy and reheatable, because Daddy always worked late. At least that’s what he said he was doing on Thursdays. That’s what she _believed_ he was doing, up until the Wesleys decided to play cops and robbers.

“April, can you set the table?” Mrs. Stevens called up the stairs.

“Sure, mom!” the girl chimed back, finishing the last of her physics homework before setting the books aside. As she padded down the stairs, the smell of dinner hit her nose - fried chicken and sweet potatoes, her favorite. April found her mother preparing the last of dinner by the stove. “Smells good,” she complimented before sliding off the counter the stack of plates and cutlery her mother had set out.

“Did you finish your homework?” her mother asked over her shoulder.

“I just have a reflection for English left.”

With a hum of recognition, the Stevens woman went back to blotting excess grease off of the chicken she was plating. April turned to set the table, placing her father’s plate at the head, with she and her mother flanking him. It was the way things had been for as long as she could remember. At church, at the country club, at home...everywhere. Team Stevens against the world. But Team Stevens was never as perfect as it seemed, was it?

“Are we gonna wait for Daddy?” she asked as two serving trays were set down on the table with a _clunk_.

“Let’s give him another fifteen minutes.”

In the end, it was “another fifteen minutes” three more times before her mother finally said grace. _Typical._ Their forks scraped happily over the ceramic as they piled food into their mouths between stilted conversation. (“How is that essay coming, dear?” “I handed it in yesterday.” “Oh. Well, good.”) Just as their plates were rinsed and filed away in the dishwasher, the phone rang. _This is a collect call from Fulton County Jail, press one to accept the charges._

That night, April’s mind swirled with anger, thinking of the day he came home.

\---

_“Actually, I don’t know.”_

_The words echoed harshly in her head like a bad song as her heavy feet carried her to her sleeping bag. For the first time in her life, April had been happy. Really, truly happy...one might go as far as to say she was free, even. It was better than she could have imagined, and she had definitely tried. In her mind was an amalgamation of every romance she’d ever seen or read, blended with blurred images of crushes new and old._

_But Sterling Wesley?_

_April didn’t take the Lord’s name in vain lightly, but_ **_God_ ** _. Sterling’s lips were so perfectly soft and holding her hand, even in the cramped darkness of the backseat of her car, was like coming home. It stilled everything around her. There were no assignments, no peering eyes, no expectations - just them, forever. Untouchable._

_And then, her dad came home. Her carefully crafted illusion, filled with rainbows and happily ever afters, was shattered. She couldn’t help but think that maybe she was wrong. Maybe God was punishing her. Maybe she was feeling the flames of hell licking at her feet and maybe she deserved it. The growing crack at the seams of her heart certainly_ **_seemed_ ** _predestined._

_But Sterling, beautiful perfect Sterling, didn’t deserve to be dragged down with her. She didn’t deserve to be cast out of the Kingdom for sins she hadn’t properly committed to. They would both find someone else at school, someone pure and normal, to spend their time with. Boys. It wasn’t the end of the world. Even if it felt like she was being split in two like a heretic in the Spanish Inquisition, even if it made her skin crawl - it wasn’t the end of the world._

_If Sterling texted her - not that she hoped for a message, not that she’d glanced at her phone thirty times in the last twenty minutes - she would ignore it. If Sterling stopped her in the hall, if she showed up at her doorstep, she would simply walk away. It was fine._

_And that Sunday at church - when her chest caved in, convinced she would be struck down where she stood before they even made it to the first hymnal - it was fine, too._

\---

It took April two weeks to adjust to her father coming back home the first time, to remember how to live inside her skin again when it felt three sizes too small. (Surely, she should have known better than to dare grow.) She spent late nights white-knuckling the abandoned ballet barre in her room, staring herself down in the mirror until the words in her head rang as true as the tears on her cheeks. _God will not smite me for being a lesbian. He made me. I am as natural as narwhals and poison frogs. He has a master plan._ And again! She repeated it, like a plié. Practice makes perfect.

When that didn’t work, she prayed. French tips dug painfully into the back of her hands, “Bless me, Heavenly Father, for I have sinned. I am sin. Please give me the strength, the love to see this through. You wouldn’t have done this by mistake...right? If you did, just...fix it. Please.” 

As the painful memories of her father’s return resurfaced, April’s anger bubbled. _Fourteen days._ Fourteen awful days where even Ellen Johnson felt like a threat. She never wanted to live like that again, not entirely sure she could claw her way back out of the blackest pits of her mind another time. So, she decided she wouldn’t have to. 

She needed to talk to Sterling Wesley tomorrow at school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on twitter @ [ki1yun](https://twitter.com/ki1yun)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on twitter @ [ki1yun](https://twitter.com/ki1yun)

She wasn’t entirely certain how she’d do it, but her carefully selected school uniform was a good first step. Its consistency comforted her. As usual, she carpooled with Hannah B. and Ezekiel who were both uncharacteristically trepidatious. Sure, most mornings before they made their requisite coffee stop she was best left alone, but this was different. Clearly, the news had traveled fast. April looked forward to the distraction her classes would bring, or at least she hoped they would. Her teachers wouldn’t hesitate to remain steadfast in their work, of course, but she couldn’t say the same for her classmates. The children of Atlanta’s elite weren’t exactly known for their moral compass, even on a Christian campus.

The trio rode to Willingham Academy in silence, except for a few excited squeals of  _ oh, I love this song, turn it up!  _ amidst the hum of music from the speakers. April spent most of the short ride lost in thought, wondering if her father’s sins were grave enough to negate the sin of wishing him neverending misfortune.

The car was parked somewhat haphazardly and Ezekiel slid out of the side door, readjusting his prosthetics in the process. “See you at lunch?” 

“Huh?” April shook the cobwebs from her brain. “Oh, yeah. Lunch. Fifth period. See you.”

By the time April Stevens settled into her seat in homeroom, it was clear that though the rumors had spread - she couldn’t fault them, the arrests were on the 10 o’clock news - Willingham, but more specifically Fellowship, had learned its lesson from last time. Anything decidedly un-Christain they had to say would be voiced far from her ears.

It would be a lie if she said she wasn’t looking forward to third period Spanish and seventh period Bible Study. Most of Fellowship was spent staring at Sterling under the guise of respectful attention between Ellen’s exuberant guidance. She watched the way her hands moved to accentuate her words, the way her lips curved around sentences, the way her eyes lit up an even brighter blue when she smiled. April couldn’t wait for a moment alone with the blonde. 

Her first chance was in Spanish. She had to wait over an hour, but it was more than worth the drudgery of Chemistry class.

“Okay, class, get into pairs for conversation practice,” Señora O’Reilly chimed after they finished studiously (read: tediously) copying notes off the blackboard.

Without a moment of hesitation, April turned to face Sterling. “Hola,” she grinned.  _ Hi _ .

Sterling eyed her, confused. It had been almost two months of silence and stolen glances. As far as she knew, April was meant to be her enemy...at absolute best, an acquaintance. Sure, she’d heard the news before she even went to bed, but she knew what happened last time, and she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to hand April Stevens her heart again. But she also knew that decision was out of her control and had been for quite some time.

At her hesitation, April continued. “¿Te gusta el Arcade?” _ Do you like the arcade? _

This seemed to soften Sterling, memories of their first date came to mind in flashes of laser tag and stolen kisses. “Si.”  _ Yeah.  _ She shifted forward in her seat with a soft smile. “Es mi lugar favorito en el mundo.”  _ It’s my favorite place in the world.  _ At this, April ducked her head to hide a soft blush. It wasn’t difficult to translate Sterling’s real message. The words were spoken too gently to mean anything other than  _ you are my favorite place _ .

Sterling busied herself folding and unfolding the corner of her worksheet, feeling particularly exposed. Then, she remembered what allowed them to speak in the first place. “¿Estás bien?” _Are you okay?_

April looked up, nodding. She spoke quietly. “Se ha ido ahora.”  _ He’s gone now. _

With a hopeful glance, they moved on to lighter topics like the lives (and worms) of Chloe and Seargent Bilko until the bell rang. But then came  _ Bible Study _ . In Bible Study, Sterling would not stop watching her. Not in an obvious way, no. Sterling knew better than to risk it, but she could tell. Big blue eyes were pinned on her like she was a prize heifer at the county fair. She wasn’t even sure Sterling had blinked since sitting at their shared desk and it had been  _ at least  _ a solid seven minutes since the bell rang. Poor girl was going to need eye drops or something, at the rate she was going.

April flipped to a blank page in the back of her notebook, scribbling a message before shoving it into the other girl’s line of sight. She underlined it twice for good measure.

_PAY_ _ATTENTION_ _._

Sterling just scratched a response in the margins of her own notebook. 

_ Supply closet after 8th. _

She had questions. And some catching up to do.

\---

Sterling waited anxiously in the closet that she was beginning to feel a little too familiar with. She scrolled mindlessly through Instagram to ease her mind as she waited for April to join her in the small room. The irony of it all wasn’t lost on her. Though, she mused that April’s closet, if physically accessible, would be much cleaner and probably just a miniature replica of the Club. (Just a driving range, not the full eighteen.) Because Sterling knew what happened inside these walls and...like,  _ ew _ . April was far better than that.

As her thoughts drifted, the small brunette barrelled through the door. “Okay, so I know you asked me here and a lot has happened and I don’t know what you wanted to even talk about but I just wanted to say that my dad is gone. So, like, fuck him. I don’t care if he’s coming back.” She didn’t seem to stop for breath. “And I just, I’d like to kiss you.” Finally, a pause. “If that’s okay,” she requested gently.

“Yeah.” Sterling nodded, her voice barely above a whisper. Like if she spoke too loudly it might snap the thread April was clinging to. “Yeah. That’s okay.”

The brunette stepped forward for a desperate kiss and Sterling pulled her closer without second thought. It had been so long. They both wanted to be as close as possible...but as close as possible wasn’t an option for April on school grounds. 

“I missed you,” April breathed out, her forehead resting against the blonde’s.

“Me too.”

“And your car,” she smirked.

Sterling barked out a surprised laugh at the other girl’s admission, squeezing her hips. “Me too.”

“But,” she broke the moment, “what did you want to talk about?”

“I was trying to figure out where your head was at, but...I think we’ve covered that.”

“Well, there was something I wanted to ask you. 

Sterling raised an eyebrow.  _ Go ahead. _

“I have a proposition for you.”

“ _ April Stevens _ ,” she drawled out in emphasis, “is propositioning me in the supply closet?” Sterling asked with a grin.

“Shut up,” she rolled her eyes with a smile. “Seriously, though. What if we just got out of here? Drove as far north as we can?”

Sterling’s response caught in her throat. April wasn’t kidding. Could they do that? Just run away? She...couldn’t. Not after Dana. No matter how appealing it sounded to pull out of the Willingham Academy parking lot and never look back, she knew it wasn’t possible. Her family would never forgive her for a stunt like that. She'd be sleeping in a tent until college, maybe even \- God forbid - _commuting_ from a tent.

“Okay, first of all,  _ love _ the energy. But...I can’t,” she grimaced. As April pulled back, she kept going. “My family would pitch a fit if I just disappeared after all the Lock-In drama. But I have a shift tomorrow at Yogurtopia,” she said as more of a suggestion than a statement. “Blair would totally cover for me. She owes me.” Her eyes bulged in excitement, “Oh my God, I never even  _ told _ you. I walked in on her giving some senior head. Like, we’re close, but we’re not  _ that _ close.”

“Ew, yeah. Spare me the details,” April’s face soured.

Sterling shook her head, attempting to rid herself of the memory. “Anyway. Tomorrow? I’ll pick you up?”

“Tomorrow,” the brunette grinned, giving Sterling a soft kiss.

“Okay, but  _ today… _ ” she trailed off in question, not bothering to hide a smirk. Her intent was clear.

“C’mere,” April mumbled into another kiss. If her mother asked (and she wouldn’t), she stayed after school to work on posters for the Chastity Club.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next update may take a minute as I'm in the process of moving but please enjoy these crumbs.
> 
> Find me on twitter @ [ki1yun](https://twitter.com/ki1yun)


End file.
